Four New Keyboards that you Must Try out on iOS 8

One of the standout features of iOS 8 is the ability to change the default Apple keyboard with the third party developed keyboards. You can argue this is a feature, Android has had for a while now, but on the flip side, look at Windows Phone, they still do not have it. Either way, its a welcome development and one that will give the iPhone or iPad users on iOS 8 another option. The keyboard on iOS has largely swung between very good to excellent, mostly depending upon the size of your hands, but with these new keyboards, you can change a few things as per your wish. Mind you, the customisations are still not as wholesale as Android, but they do just enough, for you to consider the option.

So, what are the third party keyboards that you should consider? Here are the four we feel are a must to try out.

If you do a lot of typing on your iPhone, and by typing, we mean, just simply typing, no emojis, no symbols, nothing, then Flesky is the best keyboard you can hope for. The simple UI and large layout of the keys makes it the perfect keyboard for you to type along your long E-Mail or Notes on the device. You can quickly swipe across to reach the symbols or numerals too, but the USP of the keyboard is its dark theme and larger than average keys making typing fun. The keyboard will cost you Rs 60, but trust me, it is worth the money.

We have all had that moment on Reddit or Twitter where we are conversing with a friend and there are no words left to say. This is when we resort to memes or gifs to give the appropriate response. There are plenty of meme generators out there to help you get your message across but looking for the right Gif can be a bit of a trouble. This is where Riffsy comes into its own. There are no keys here, and you simply have an unlimited collection of gifs to pick up and convey the message ranging from happy to sad to romantic mood. Pressing on a Gif copies it to your clipboard that you can simply paste to the input field and send it to your friends.

Just like Riffsy, Swiftkey is also a free keyboard for iOS. If you have used Android smartphones, chances are, you must have used Swiftkey too. It is one of the simplest keyboards out there and has a stronger predictive typing as compared to the default keyboard on iPhones. This in itself is a good enough reason to pick up Swiftkey on your iPhone, though changing to swiftkey, brings about a one to two second lag for the first few minutes and that can be a bit annoying. Other than that, it works pretty much perfectly. You can also sign up in your Facebook and G+ accounts for a better predictive typing experience.

Just like Swiftkey and Flesky, Swype too has been a well known keyboard from the days of Android. With plenty of skins as well as the ability to swipe your fingers across to type instead of tapping on each word, Swype is one of the fastest ways of typing on an iPhone. We felt that Swype, just like Swiftkey works a lot better than the default keyboard when it comes to predictive typing and given the similar feature sets of the two, you can pick any of the two between Swype and Swiftkey without missing out on anything.

Which of these is your favorite third party keyboard on iOS 8? Let us know in the section below.